[MMM]

It's nice that it is a job that you don't have to necessarily be in a certain place to do, but I'd rather be in America with Japanese clients than the other way around, just because of living expenses and the rates they will pay.

Unless you pass the Japanese Proficiancy Test at Level 1, you will need experience, which means getting in the door at a larger translation company. The pay won't be as high as it can be as a freelance translator, but you won't get any work if you don't have any experience. There really isn't any need to move. I was surprised to find out that one of the best translators I know actually lives in Australia. I just assumed he lived in the US. I would guess there are more translation companies that do Asian languages on west coast, but I don't know for sure.

Nintendo is entirely in-house, because of trade secrets, so you might see that kind of situation, too.

In terms of study and work, translation companies like people that love languages, but who doesn't who applies. I worked at a Japanese bank for a couple years, so I was able to say I had a "special skill" in banking and economics language. That wasn't really true, but it showed I had a variety of experiences. Find work where you can gain a special skill, especially if it is language related, and they have a "jargon" (i.e. banking, politics, legal, marketing, high-tech, IT, cooking, etc.).